Diversity As Priority Number 1: A Case Study

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Grantmakers for Education (GFE) recently released a case study — which also features the work of the Lumina Foundation – that chronicles our ongoing efforts at NewSchools to become a more diverse, equitable and inclusive investor and organization. The case study details the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts both we and Lumina have undertaken in our grantmaking strategies and within our respective organizations.

Having written many cases when I was on the faculty of Harvard Business School, I value them as a tool for learning about how leaders and managers address real situations. I thought the release of the GFE case provided a good opportunity to share some internal data about how we are doing and our areas for growth. This additional data is a good quantitative supplement to the narrative in the case.

Since you are interested in Impact Philanthropy, have you read these selections from Giving Compass related to impact giving and Impact Philanthropy?

Giving Compass' Take:
• The Kendeda Fund is navigating the best approach to address the issue of early and child marriages in South Asia and around the world.
• The Fund reports that the most successful interventions are when the women and girls are running the programs themselves. That way, the community is accountable for keeping up sustainable programs.
• Read about how education can serve as protection against child marriages.
Since 2013, The Kendeda Fund has been on a philanthropic journey to address the issue of early- and child-marriage (ECM) so prevalent in South Asia and around the world.
When we started our girls’ rights and ECM work, we came into it with an assumption that change, to be effective, lasting and true, had to be community driven and bottom-up. It is a value that cuts across all of our programs in one form or another. So why should it be any different in South Asia?
Reflections from recent trips to Nepal, India and Bangladesh, however, have helped this author see the community-driven change we want to support in a subtler, more nuanced light.
The best approach, we now believe, is a community-led model that addresses root causes of early- and child-marriage, including patriarchal beliefs about girls’ bodies and sexuality. But it is a model that is built by and for politicized collectives of girls, rather than merely collections of girls whose best interests are decided and advocated for in more traditional, predictable, top-down ways.
Three lessons learned help illustrate what I mean:
Talking about sex.
Girls need the protection of law, but not always in the ways you might think.
Traditional definitions of honor can be challenged without destroying families and communities.
Read the full article about the root causes of early and child marriages by Dena Kimball at The Philanthropy Workshop.

Overall, our team found NewSchools to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive than the average education organization that participated in the survey. The survey also points to areas where we can continue to make progress.

Earlier this year our team at NewSchools completed a survey as part of a field-wide project that culminated in a study based on data collected from more than 5000 individuals in 200 education organizations. The study, “Unrealized Impact,” includes information about organizational demographics, policies, and practices. Each participating organization received their own data, but only aggregated results were included in the public report.

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Impact Philanthropy is an important topic. Other members found these Giving Funds, Charitable Organizations and Projects aggregated by Giving Compass to be relevant to individuals with a passion for Impact Philanthropy.